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Last week, Yahoo sportswriter Dan Wetzel, co-author of Death
to the BCS, published a really solid column on why the Big 12 and Big
East need to endorse a playoff now in order to save their
conferences. Back in 2008, both conferences joined the Big 10 and
Pac 10 in rejecting a plus-one playoff idea that was supported by
the SEC and the ACC. Now, the SEC and ACC are poised to join the
Big 10 and Pac 12 as superconferences while the Big 12 and Big
East are on the verge of collapsing. So, as Wetzel argues, the
Big 12 and Big East ought to be regretting that decision and
acting fast to push for a playoff before it’s too late.

But perhaps the most significant — and overlooked by the rest of
the sports media — aspect of Wetzel’s column were comments made
by Texas athletic director DeLoss Dodds on a possible playoff.
Wetzel writes:
“People would be watching to see who the eight (playoff) teams
are going to be,” said Texas athletic director DeLoss Dodds,
noting that earning a BCS bowl bid produces little such bump. “It
would build interest. It would enhance the
season.”

And responding to the BCS’ (erroneous) mantra that the current system
enhances the regular season, Dodds said: “I don’t know how
anybody could put that out there…It’s the [opposite]. A playoff
builds the season.”

These are very strong words coming from the leadership of one of
college football’s biggest superpowers. Especially considering
that it was the Texas Longhorns’ deal with ESPN for their own
network that drove a wedge into the Big 12 and led to the
departures of Nebraska and Colorado. (The same ESPN that owns the
rights to broadcast the BCS games.) So why haven’t Dodds comments
created more of a buzz in the sports media?

Certainly, because Texas has been burned by the BCS — in 2008,
one-loss Oklahoma was chosen over one-loss Texas for the
championship game, despite the Longhorns having beat the Sooners
that season — there is a strong feeling of resentment among Burnt
Orange Nation toward the system. But for the athletic director of
a school with its own ESPN network and with relative control over
what remains of the Big 12 to come out so strongly in favor of a
playoff suggests that some traditional powers may soon join the
outsiders in pushing for a playoff.